The Place we call Home
by Mugiwara N0 Luffy
Summary: The Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch have been in the Mass Effect universe for two years, failing to find any trace of a way back home. Instead, they are given a chance to bring back Shepard and continue as her team again. With them, Shepard will battle against the Collectors. To do this, they're gonna need some more help. strong language and sexual innuendos. rating may change
1. Genesis

**So this idea has been in my head a few weeks now. I love Red vs Blue and I love Mass Effect, and I think that, surprisingly, they would make for a great crossover! I've tried to find a more serious or more intricate MExRVB buuut no luck. So, in an attempt to bring you all the crossover you've wanted, here is my story! I'm going to call this first chapter Genesis. Why? Because like in ME2 and 3, you can use Genesis to skip over the previous game. Now to be honest and upfront, I was not the biggest fan of the first game, but I LOVED the second. So, while the Blood Gulch crew will be arriving in the first game, the story from there will be explained in a certain freelancers point of view. Anyways, tell me what you think and leave a review!**

Genesis

_Journal entry 120. It's been almost two years since I've done this. Odd considering the fact that you might think I'd document our time in an alternate universe. So let's get caught up on what's happened so far. Over two years ago, the Reds and Blues of project Freelancer, including myself, became involved in a civil war on a planet called Chorus. Problem was we were split between the armies, not knowing whether the others were okay. When we finally reunited, we found out a terrible truth. While this war may have started by the actions of the inhabitants, a third party has further pushed it along in an attempt to wipe out the entire population. Two mercenaries played on opposing sides, acting in their armies best interests to gain their trust. Locus on the side of the Federal Army of Chorus, and Felix, once thought to be an ally, was playing hero to the New Republic._

_ Let's just say that once we discovered this information, we paid the price. We were on the run from the Mercenaries and their group, barely having a second to breathe. Thankfully we came into contact with Carolina and Church again, who had left before we got involved in the civil war. Together we did our best to try and take down these mercenaries. But then this is where things got… weird._

_In an attempt to at least contact the two different armies, our group targeted the radio jammers that the mercenaries set up to keep us from doing so. As we soon found out though, they had access to ancient alien technology, things none of us had ever seen before. During a mission to destroy one of the jammers, we walked into a trap. We were blocked off, stuck in an ancient alien structure with little to no way out. But of course, curiosity got the best of Caboose and he ran around the structure. He found something on his little search, something that changed our lives abruptly. After finally finding Caboose, he accidently activated the artifact, and it threw us through a type of portal. When we came out on the other side, we found ourselves on an entirely different planet. To be more accurate though, we were in an entirely different universe. Of course, at the time we had yet to figure that out._

_Our arrival had not gone unnoticed by others, as we were soon discovered by the human military of this new universe called the Systems Alliance. Our first clues to the difference between our universes should have been obvious to us, but unfortunately the only others I had to ask about it were my team and the reds. And of course, they jumped to far more ludicrous theories, which you would think is hard in hindsight but when they get going there's really no convincing them unless you throw it in their faces. I didn't even have Carolina or Epsilon there to agree with me. It wasn't until we were finally picked up by the Systems Alliance that the group finally conceded to my idea. _

_So that was the beginning of our time in this new alternate universe. At first our group seemed like an amazing discovery to the Systems Alliance and even all the Council races and further interested them in the idea of a multiverse. They were quickly let down by the fact that most of our team was filled with idiots. Go figure on that one. So instead of attempting to send us home or even give us a choice, they pushed our group onto Captain Anderson, a seasoned and wise marine who somehow figured out how to deal with us. Alongside him, he had Commander Jane Shepard, one of the greatest soldier, leader and friend I've come to know. _

_At first Shepard was pretty wary of our group, not because we seemed untrustworthy, but more of because… well, the obvious reasons. So I gave her advice and told her what I tell most people that we meet: Don't worry, they're not so bad once you get to know them. Just don't take them too seriously. And for some reason, this advice clicked with her. Instead of hating our very presence, she adapted to the group, laughed at their idiocy and took a warming to them a lot easier than I was expecting. That was when I first realized that _she _was someone we could trust. Despite our time here most likely being temporary (or so we thought so at the time) we settled in quite nicely with our new crew. But that took a very harsh change._

_Shepard was a highly notable soldier, apparently being a hero from a war in this universe. It showed on the battlefield as well, her skills and leadership quite a sight to see. In our world, she could have been a Freelancer, possibly in the top five ranking. All of this got her noticed by the Citadel Council, and soon gave her the chance to become a SPECTRE, a special agent of the Council. It was going to be a huge step for humanity, and I was proud to call her my new boss. Of course the others took it as 'more work' and couldn't care less. Now that I think about it, they were right about it becoming more work. _

_To see Shepard's skills firsthand, the council assigned Nihlus, a Turian SPECTRE, to our ship for a supposed 'standard' field operation. I had my suspicions as did Shepard, for at the time they were keeping tight lipped about the situation. But as fate would have it, our standard mission turned into the beginning of something much bigger. _

_Before we even arrived on Eden Prime, the objective planet, the Normandy picked up a fairly cryptic message from the settlement we were headed for. Deciding to investigate firsthand, Shepard took Tucker, Kaidan Alenko and I on the mission. Tucker wasn't so enthused about going after seeing the message for himself, but no one asked what he thought anyways. We soon encountered the Geth, a synthetic race created by the Quarians. I'd go into details, but that would take too much time as it is. Along the way, we picked up Ashley Williams, a sole survivor in her squad. _

_The mission soon became far more disastrous than we could have expected. The Geth seemed to have their own set objective, and were planning to destroy the settlement. Thankfully we were able to diffuse the bombs they planned to detonate, but soon discovered the body of Nihlus, shot in the head from behind. We found a civilian still alive who had watched his demise himself, revealing that another SPECTRE, Saren, was the mastermind behind all of this. _

_Before finally being able to leave and arrest the SPECTRE, Shepard came into contact with a Prothean beacon, something that only raised more questions. But that wasn't where our problems ended. Despite the eyewitness account of Saren Arcturus on Eden Prime, the Council didn't believe that he was guilty of anything. So in the end, it was up to us to figure out how to provide more evidence in our case. Thankfully that came in the form of a certain Quarian named Tali. Having extensive knowledge in Geth, she was able to recover a message that was more than enough to prove his guilt. The main problem was finding her though, but thankfully our luck was on a hot streak. A Turian C-Sec officer, now one of my closest friends, Garrus Vakarian was hot on Tali's trail and helped point us in the right direction. Along the way, we met a mercenary Krogan named Wrex, who became quite a deadly ally to have. I didn't trust him at first, thinking I knew his kind before, but we'll get to that later. _

_After finally reaching Tali, who was close to getting assassinated, we were able to get the information we needed, and bring forth our evidence to the Council. With irrefutable proof of his involvement on Eden Prime, Saren was stripped of his title and wanted as a criminal. Thanks to this, Shepard was finally given the status of SPECTRE, and given her first assignment: capture Saren Arcturus and bring him to justice. We had one lead that could help us, which was Matriarch Benezia who was also heard speaking to Saren in the message. She had a daughter, Liara T'soni who we thought might be able to give us information on her mother's whereabouts and plans. When we found her, she didn't quite have what we were looking for, but instead became a very reliable ally. _

_I could go on about the missions and adventures we had while chasing Saren, but that would take more than just a single journal entry to cover. So instead, I think I'll talk about our new crew mates and where they stood with me and the Reds and Blues. _

_First I'll start with Garrus Vakarian, the C-Sec officer who joined us to help hunt down Saren. At first I wasn't sure what to make of him, still trying to familiarize myself with the different races. But as time went on I could see that he had a strong sense of right and wrong. He crossed the line of the law, but he did so to pursue justice as far as he could. I realized that Garrus and I were quite similar in some ways, although not quite in all. Either way, we became quite close friends. Out of everyone, with only Shepard and the Blood Gulch crew possibly being the exceptions, I trusted him the most. The Reds and Blues weren't quite as keen on befriending him at first, but they warmed up to him as well. _

_Now we have Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams. I'm grouping these two together because they used to stick around each other a lot. And they shared one close thing: they both couldn't stand the Reds and Blues. This didn't seem to bother my friends very much though, to be honest they didn't really care. I had no problems with either, and Kaidan was actually a good friend. Ashley was… not so much. It was nothing really personal, and we remained civil around each other, but she was too single minded at first. Sure, I suppose I shouldn't be one to talk, but she treated some of our alien 'friends' like second rate citizens. In my time in this new universe, I had come to accept that they were just like humans, scarily similar in fact. So I didn't judge them just because they were aliens, even if the ones from our universe were different. _

_Next we have Urdnot Wrex, the Krogan Mercenary. I was second most wary of Wrex at first, after all we had all had a fair share of bad experiences with mercenaries by now. Not to mention his power alone was unsettling, his hulking strength and his surprisingly adept skills as a biotic, something very few Krogan had. But to my surprise and everyone else's, it was Sarge who got him to open up and become slightly friendlier. I was afraid that the Red leader was going to get himself killed, but in the end the two reminisced over old war stories (Sarge's of course being exaggerated or mainly revolving around his time in Blood Gulch) and an oddly similar annoyance with Grif's laziness. Sometimes the two would beat him down together for kicks. We learned that unlike what I had first thought, he didn't only care about money or fighting, but he cared far more deeply for his own people. It hurt him to see so many Krogan wasting their potential and abandoning their clans. The only reason he did so was because of a bad situation with his own father._

_Next is Tali, our Quarian engineer. She was surprisingly easy to like, compared to the others at least. She was quite kind, and it was fairly hard to view her in a bad way. From the beginning, she had helped us try to take down Saren, so she had earned her place in the crew. I came to trust her sooner than I expected as well, which I sometimes blame the Reds and Blues for. For the most part they loved Tali, even though she found them all quite odd and quirky. Despite that, over time she liked them all. In fact, she seemed to be getting a bit closer to Simmons. It was funny to watch sometime, because both were slightly nervous wrecks around each other when they talked. _

_Then there's Liara. For obvious reasons, I couldn't trust her at all at first. She was far closer to the enemy than anyone we had met so far, which left a lot of room for betrayal at anytime. I kept a close eye on her our entire time together, and when we finally confronted her mother, I was prepared for the worst. But as it turned out, my caution was not needed, for she made it clear then and there that she would fight her own mother after hearing what she was doing. It was sad when we were finally able to stop Benezia, who was merely being controlled, die in her arms. From that point on, I trusted her completely. We've been friends ever since. _

_Finally, last but not least, there was Jane Shepard. From the first time the group and I met her, it was almost plain to see that she was someone we could trust. Anyone else would have brushed our group off as idiots who were unreliable for anything. But she saw past all of the idiocy and the crude humor, and she found the same thing I did in the Reds and Blues. They may have seemed lazy and disloyal, but when it came down to it, they would have each other's backs even against impossible odds. _

_And much to the groups and my own surprise, she had grown quite close with Tucker. At first he of course made crude jokes and pick up lines toward Shepard, to which I thought would get him killed. Instead, she threw it back in his face as a joke, making her own pick up lines that were far more entertaining to see as they flustered the aqua suited soldier. In the end, they formed a far deeper relationship, and surprisingly enough Tucker didn't even make jokes toward the other women of our crew, only towards Shepard… most of the time. Sometimes it was too tempting, and he'd take the beating from Shepard. _

_This was our team, and over time we trusted them as much as we trusted each other. We went together on missions, fought against impossible odds and came out alive. At least, that was until Virmire, the changing point in the pursuit of Saren. We soon discovered that he was trying to construct a cure for the Genophage, which had incurred infertility on most of the Krogan race. This put Wrex in a tough spot, seeing this as a turning of the tide for his people should they succeed. It got to the point that Wrex wasn't sure whose side he should be on, and even pulled a gun on Shepard. We were at the ready, unsure of whether to pull the trigger or not. I believed that Shepard could have talked him down, as she could do with anyone, but in the end it was Sarge who got through to him. He made him realize that they would only use the Krogan for their own gain, and would dispose of them once they were done. The Reds and Blues were all too familiar with the concept, and made Wrex realize the truth. I was thankful for the Red leader's intervention, because up to that point Wrex had become a good ally and friend._

_With the help of the STG team sent by the Salarians, we were able to take down the compound and stop Saren's operation. Only… we found out something far worse than we expected. The ship Saren had been using in his travels was not just some large capital ship we assumed the Geth made, it was far worse. It was a Reaper, a species of synthetic super beings bent on the destruction of organics. If I hadn't been there myself, I would have been very skeptical like my red and blue teammates. But it was very real. Not only was it real, but he turned out to be the true cause behind all of this chaos, and was using the former SPECTRE as a puppet._

_With this new information, we did what we could to try and stop Sovereign before it could finish its plan of bringing its entire race with him. First we would start by destroying this facility and ending his plan to take over the Krogans. But we were left at an impasse now, for Kaidan and his men were stuck by the bomb, and Ashley was cornered with the STG team by Saren's forces. We had to choose which one to save. In the end Shepard chose to save Ashley. I don't know how she chose in her head, or why. But I could tell that no matter who she picked, she was going to regret it. That was the first time we lost a crew member like that, and despite having no real special feelings for Kaidan, it showed on the Reds and Blues that it took a toll on all of us. But we had no time to grieve his loss. We still had to stop Saren._

_ We found out he was heading to Illos, where he planned to activate the Conduit for his plan. For this we believed that it was a time to call in the calvary with a full frontal assault on the planet. We went to the Council for help, hoping they'd give us the support we needed. Instead, when we finally reach the Citadel, they ground us for fear of starting a war with the Terminus systems even though we had a far greater threat at hand. _

_Together with Captain Anderson we planned to take back the ship and get back into space and head for Illos. We had a good plan and most of the crew was ready. But the Reds were a bit reluctant. Before we set off our plan, the Reds admitted that they felt this was too big for them or for any of us really. The point of joining the crew was to have a ride until we found a way back to our universe. I understood their fears, but out of all the times we need them now was the most important. Tucker was surprisingly ready for the mission, although I felt it was mostly due to having Shepards back no matter what, and Caboose… well he just wouldn't want to leave us. In the end though, it was Shepard who came to them herself. She didn't order them, but she asked them sincerely, saying that they had proven to her time and time again that they were more than a bunch of rag tag idiots. They had come to be the soldiers she could depend on through thick and thin. She inspired all of us with the speech, and despite their fears the Reds bucked up and came along. _

_After leaving the Citadel, we headed straight for Illos. The fly there was a bit longer than usual, and so we sat with our thoughts for a time. Tucker and Shepard went off to… spend time together, while the rest of us sat in wait. Along with Garrus, the Reds, Caboose and I took bets on whether Simmons and Tali would finally admit their feelings for each other as a pass time. Sadly they seemed too nervous for it, and with all that was happening I guess I couldn't blame either of them. Didn't mean they didn't get shit from Grif of course. Sarge and Wrex spent some time getting their weapons ready and reminiscing about their missions together, and would fight together to the end. Grif had become good friends with Joker, and the two spent the time taking jabs at the other. _

_After what seemed like hours of waiting, we finally arrived on Illos. As it turns out,Illos was only a mid point for Saren. He was going to the Citadel. After chasing him through the Prothean mines, we encountered an old VI that gave us further information on the Reapers and the Protheans themselves. It turns out the Mass Relays were constructed by the Reapers as a means to destroy the races capable of using their technology. The Protheans were no different, and they were definitely not the first race to be their victims. But we had no time to think about what happened then, and moved on. After finally reaching the Conduit, we were taken straight to the Citadel after Saren. Sadly by the time we got there, the Geth had already been laying waste to those around. But that didn't stop us; we pushed forward and fought our way to Saren, doing whatever possible to stop him from bringing the Reapers to our galaxy. _

_While we were inside dealing with the former SPECTRE, the Council attempted to escape the wrath of Sovereign and the Geth, but thankfully the Systems Alliance had arrived and did battle with the Reaper. And so we had to do our part on the inside and take Saren down. In the end, Shepard was able to talk him down slightly, showing that this whole time he had been nothing more than a puppet. He shot himself, freeing his mind from the Reaper control. At least that's what we thought. After finally stopping Sovereign from opening the path for the Reapers, he took control of Saren's dead body and tried to kill us. After some fighting, we finally put him down, and focused on the battle outside. _

_Shepard was then left with one last choice: save the Council and put human ships in harm's way, or let them die to have a tactical advantage. In the end, she knew that the best thing to do was to save the Council, even if they were being pricks. The Alliance lost a lot of ships that day, but in the end they saved the Council and earned their respect. In the end Shepard was named hero of the Citadel, and helped make Captain Anderson the first human Councilor on the Citadel. Times were looking up for humanity at this point._

_Despite still being out of place, the Reds and Blues decided to stay with Shepard on her ship, following her lead. If we found a way home while here, then we'd decide whether to go or not. To be honest though, I wasn't exactly sure how set we were on leaving. Wrex returned to his home planet Tuchanka, staying in contact with Shepard and Sarge for the most part. Tali had to leave to finish her Pilgrimage although reluctant as she had loved the crew and of course her feelings for Simmons. But in the end we all understood, and Simmons told her to do what she had to, and the two stayed in contact ever since. _

_Despite her rising fame as the first SPECTRE and savior of the Citadel, I was a bit surprised to see us return to normal missions for the Alliance after that. Maybe it was just how overwhelming the mission to stop Saren was that these seemed much less significant. But we soon found that they were no less dangerous. Especially when you're not expecting the enemy to come to you. On a supposed 'routine mission' around one of our Colonized planets to stop Geth, we were attacked. It was no Geth ship, and it was far more powerful than we had seen aside from Sovereign. The Normandy wouldn't win and was being decimated. In the end we had to abandon ship and leave before we all were killed. Most of the crew made it out alive, seemingly unharmed but… not our Commander. _

_As we soon found out from Joker, who was last to leave… Shepard died getting him out. It seemed unreal to all of us. We took it hard, harder than when Kaidan died. Tucker was devastated, and for a while he was inconsolable. He blamed Joker for what happened and refused to consider him a friend from that point on, and nearly left the Blue team. Not knowing what to do from then on, we Reds and Blues stayed together and moved around wherever they chose to post us. After a while of seeing no change in Tucker, I was finally able to bring him out of his grief. I had to apologize for letting it go for so long, but he agreed that he needed the time anyways. _

_After some time, we grew a bit tired of sitting around and doing nothing, and set out to find our way home. We didn't see much point in staying here anymore, having lost our commander and the team having broken up anyways. Along the way though, I had been asked by Garrus on occasion to help him with fighting some Mercenary groups. He had assumed a new identity as a vigilante in the Terminus Systems, and was playing hero. I helped him out whenever I could, but I couldn't always be there as we tried to find leads that might connect to a way home. Whatever we found was usually fruitless though, and seemed like we were going on a wild goose chase._

_Time had flown by since we had arrived in this universe, and before we knew it two years had passed. We had just about given up on finding a way home (although it could be argued that we didn't search that well). But after some time we received a message from Liara, who had become an information broker over the years. She gave us some news that we would never have expected._

_Shepard was alive. _

_Apparently during the past two years, Liara had encountered the Shadow Broker who had tried to steal Shepard's body and destroy it. Thankfully Liara was able to recover it first, and handed it over to Cerberus, a pro human terrorist organization, who claimed to be able to bring her back to life. I was mad that she hadn't told us about such a thing, but she had to be sure it was safe. She didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, especially Tuckers. But she had been keeping tabs on the team that was reviving her, and now she heard that the process was complete and that Shepard had been fully revived. Now it's up to us to take her back before they attempted to use her for their gain._

_This is actually where my log ends. I felt I had to make this before going into their base, just in case we things go south, which they usually do with us. This is Agent Washington, signing out. _

"Hey Wash, are you done with that stupid log thing? We've still got to make a plan." Tucker asked from behind the former Freelancer. Washington turned around and nodded, following the Aqua armored soldier out.

"I'm coming. I just thought I'd make one for the record. Whatever happens today… changes everything for us from here."

**To be continued in…**

**The Place we call Home**

**Alright! Man that was probably the longest prologue I've ever made! I hope you guys enjoyed, this sure took it out of me! In case you're wondering who is all here from RvB, here's the list: Washington, Sarge, Tucker, Caboose, Simmons, Grif and Donut. I may or may not add Lopez to that list, but I'm still thinking about it. In case you're hoping that Carolina and Church come in, don't worry. They'll eventually make it in the story too. Also yes, for the most part the story sort of focuses on Washington, but it still involves the entire group. **

**Last thing, in case you're wondering: Just because the Blood Gulch crew is there, doesn't mean they're replacing anyone from ME2. Every character is going to be there, so don't trip.**

**If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the review section! See ya'll later!**


	2. Why are we here?

**Alright then everyone, let's get this story on the road! I don't like starting a story with only a prologue that leaves you hanging :P Thank you for all the reviews and favorites, and please keep them coming! I usually don't answer reviews because I'm used to getting a lot more. Since it's only about seven I'll answer them this one time. Don't expect me to do it all the time, I get lazy lol.**

**High Captain: Thank you, glad you enjoyed it so far! Sadly no, Tex and Sheila will not be making an appearance. She is gone now, and I believe the director deleted Sheila as well. But I may bring in some other characters like Doc or doctor Gray. We'll see though, at this point almost anything is possible!**

**Deltawaves: Sorry, Lopez will not become a sexbot like EDI. Maybe he'll hook up with her instead, but not sure XD**

**The Another One: Oh yeah, I plan to keep their usual running gags in the story as much as possible! That's part of what makes them hilarious :P lol**

**The incredible Muffin: I believe so too, a story like this has so much potential :3**

**Mercwiththemouth: To be honest they won't be getting a recruitment mission, as they'll be joining Shepards group after they save her. Of course they're gonna bitch about her going on another suicide mission, but in the end they'll stick with her through it.**

**SakuraMusic: That's an interesting idea… I may use that! XD It's either that or have her get together with Lopez lol. **

**Defcon Deciever: Actually I don't plan for them to look super similar to each other, I think she'll be more of a blond or maybe a dark brunette… in fact, when I'm done I'll post a link of the picture of the femshep I do on my profile, so look for that!**

**Okay everyone, let's get started! Time to save Shepard RvB style! Also I don't know a lick of Spanish and don't want to butcher the language with Google translator. So even though I've decided to keep Lopez in I will be putting his words in English, but they will have () these around his words when he talks, signifying that he's talking Spanish.**

Why are we here?

It was a relatively quiet trip for the Reds and Blues at the moment. Simmons and Grif stared into the deep space through the window of their transport ship. Sarge sat down next to Donut checking over his weapons while Donut was listening to some weird music in his helmet, occasionally making some weird dance move or grunt. Caboose sat across from them sound asleep. They were on their way to find Shepard, their dead Commander. If Liara hadn't been so sure, they would have just said it was all bullshit. But as it was, they were sort of clinging to the hope that she was in fact alive. And so here they were the rag tag group of idiots on a possibly fake mission. They were sort of used to the concept, so whether they turned up with anything or not wasn't that big of a deal. It's not like they were doing anything else except stand around and talk.

"Hey Grif?" Simmons asked, glancing at him from the side.

"What's up?" The orange armored man lazily responded, turning ever so slightly to look at him.

"You ever wonder why we're here."

Grif stared at Simmons for a long moment, the silence in the room only being broken by Caboose's constant snoring.

"Do not start with that shit again." Grif grumbled in annoyance, earning a confused… body turn from Simmons.

"Wait what?" Simmons asked, raising a brow behind his helmet.

"First you were gonna get me to say something really deep and mind boggling, and then you're going to dash my questions of the universe with something far more mundane. Am I right?" Grif explains pointedly.

"Geez you big baby, what if I was asking something deep?" Simmons retorts sharply.

"Were you?" Grif counters. Simmons is quiet for a moment before sighing shortly. "No I wasn't." The maroon armored man answered, tilting his head down in depression.

"That's what I thought. So what were you actually asking?" Grif asked, turning to look back at deep space. Simmons perked back up again quickly and followed his line of sight.

"Well what I mean is why are **we** here on this mission? I mean I get why the Blues are doing it, and we basically stick together all the time now-"

"Way too much for comfort anymore…" Grif sighed, interrupting him momentarily.

"But don't you think that Wash could have gotten someone else?" Simmons asked thoughtfully.

"What are you talking about? Don't you want to save Shepard too?" Grif asked a bit unsure by what he meant.

"No no, it's not that I don't want to save her, in fact if it turns out she's alive that's amazing! But I feel like Wash could have picked a better team of people to bring along than just us. He hasn't exactly been standing around for the past two years like we have." Simmons explained thoroughly, thinking of the times Wash left for solo missions or went to help one of their old comrades out.

"I guess you got a point on that one. I figured he at least would have called Garrus to help. They were like butt buddies." Grif mused thoughtfully, looking at a larger star shining through the window.

"I didn't call Garrus because I know he's busy with his own business at the moment." Wash declared as he walked into the room with Tucker. The two teams turned to him in full attention now aside from Caboose who was still sound asleep.

"Took you long enough. The heck were you doin' in there for so long?" Sarge asked, putting his Eviscerator on his back. Since they had been in this universe so long, they had upgraded their armor and weapons a bit, although sticking to their usual Mark VI armor.

"I was making a journal entry before the mission. Someone should document what we do around here, at least when it's something important enough to remember." The former Freelancer declared, standing at the front of both teams.

"Oh you have a diary too, Wash? That is so awesome! We should compare notes about our thoughts and really dig deep into each other!" Donut added spritely, making everyone turn to him in annoyance.

"Wha-what? No! A journal is **not **the same as a diary! Every standard military personnel are told to use a journal to help keep their mind sharp!" Washington argued, but at this point the others didn't look very convinced.

"I don't know dude, a journal sounds pretty close to a diary to me. Does yours have flowers on the covers too?" Grif added, making Wash groan in annoyance.

"He's got a point there Wash, are you sure they're not the same? You seemed pretty set on finishing it before I walked in. Bow chika bow wow." Tucker added, earning a glance from his teammates. "Okay maybe not my best set up…"

"Do you draw things you think of in your diary too? I like to make a small illustration to help give an idea to the reader what I'm thinking at the time!" Donut continued on, obviously still serious.

"The reader? Aren't you the only one reading your diary?" Simmons asked quizzically.

"Hey, you never know when someone's-"

"Alright, enough! Let's just focus on the mission at hand okay?" Wash ordered, making the room silent for a moment.

"Be careful guys, if we keep bagging on Wash he'll talk shit about us in his journal slash diary." Grif laughed, getting the last laugh of the room. The former freelancer sighed in defeat, waiting for the group to finish their verbal assault.

"Alright num nuts, put a sock in it. We've got to strategize for the mission!" Sarge ordered loudly, quieting the room again.

"Thank you Sarge."

"So while you were drawing in that diary of yours, did you come up with a plan of attack?"

Washington groaned in aggravation, turning to a terminal and pressing several buttons as he gave up on convincing them about the journal. A hologram of a space station appeared in the middle of the room. Tucker nudged Caboose awake who shook his head. "Tucker did it! Oh, never mind. I had a good dream."

"Shut up Caboose, we're about to go over the plan." Tucker said looking up at the hologram.

"Alright, based on the Intel that Liara gave us, this is where Cerberus has been holding Shepards body for the past year or so. Apparently they have been trying to revive Shepard after the incident that took her life. Liara says that her sources say Shepard is almost fully revived. If that's true, then we're going to be taking her back." Washington explained, crossing his arms as he inspected the base.

"Wait, shouldn't we be happy these guys are bringing her back to life?" Grif asked with an unseen raised brow.

"We are, but Cerberus is a pro-human Terrorist group. If they truly have brought Shepard back to life, then I fear they're going to use her for their own benefits. For all we know, she could turn into some mind controlled puppet for them to use for their own gain." Wash declared matter-of-factly, making the group look at each other with concern.

"He's right. We can't just let them do what they want to her! Only I can stick a big needle in my lady! Bow chika bow wow!" Tucker added, standing from his seat in determination. Everyone stared at him for a long moment, waiting for his joke to finally set in.

"So a needle, huh? I guess I should have expected so little." Grif shot at the Aqua armored man, who did a double take.

"Wait what? No not a needle- I mean its way bigger and- aw damn it! See? Without my baby I'm just messing up my lines everywhere! We need to hurry up and save her Wash!" Tucker exclaimed, pulling out his sword for no apparent reason.

"If you let me finish, we'll get to that!" Washington answered sharply, quieting Tucker for the moment. "So as far as we know, they should be keeping her in the lower part of the station." He explained, pointing out a part the hologram that lit up at his touch. "We've got to make our way down to that part of the station, grab her body-("Bow chika bow wow.")-and get out quickly. We'll be entering the station from the back port. We have our stealth systems up so they won't spot our ship."

"Alright! Hitting them from the rear! Let's pound 'em real hard guys!" Donut cheered, pulling out his gun. The rest of the crew stared at Donut for a few long silent moments before looking back at Washington.

"You have any other routes we can take? Preferably safe from Donut?" Simmons asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I'd hate to hear Donut talk about entering rears during the mission. Our enemies will just laugh to death before we can kill 'em ourselves." Sarge added, shaking his head at the thought.

"Uh… yeah, just give me a moment to look for one." Agent Washington said, going over the schematics of the station. Donut visibly slumped in sadness, taking his seat again.

"Why don't we pull off the Blood Gulch maneuver? They'll never see it coming!" Sarge suggested, his question pointed mostly at Wash.

"Isn't that just where you guys crash into the place and start shooting everything?" Agent Washington questioned with an unseen eyebrow raise.

"Exactly! We'll crash through one of their windows and splatter the Cerberus scum all over the walls! It will be like an old Picasso painting, to be observed by those who pass and know that the Red team rules supreme... and Blue team sucks." Sarge exclaimed with a pride spread through his tone.

"We're not doing that. If we just randomly crashed into their base, we could end up in a room surrounded by guards. Or end up in a radioactive quarantine zone. This place is an experimental facility which is why they took Shepards body here. They weren't sure whether they could bring her back in the first place." Washington stated, dashing the plan. "Since we're on the topic, let's talk about enemy personnel. For the most part they have low security people wise."

"Why do you say people wise?" Tucker asked this time.

"Most of their security is made up of mechs instead of people. Not that strong, but they can cause a bit of trouble and are set to kill on sight." Washington declared, brushing it off as if it were nothing. "I'm sure we can handle it."

"What a ringing endorsement. I'm filled with confidence." Grif drawled sarcastically.

"Maybe we can see if the mechs are on a single network, we could rewire them to see us as friendlies." Simmons suggested thoughtfully, to which Wash agreed with.

"That's not a bad idea actually. Alright Simmons, if you think you can hack into the mechs, we'll get you to a security console." Washington declared, turning to the team. "So instead we'll enter the station from a side landing platform. It will take us closer to their central security systems. After we hack the mechs, we head down to the medical bay and retrieve Shepard. Donut, you and Lopez are staying with the ship to make sure we've got a ride out."

"You got it, boss! No matter how many start coming, I'll take it all head on! Lopez will help take a load off too!" Donut proclaimed a bit too excited.

"Jesus Donut, you can ruin **anything**!" Grif groans in disgust.

"(Please don't leave me with this idiot, anyone else but him.)" Lopez spoke from the cockpit, his words flying over the heads of the crew.

"I'm excited to fight with you too, Lopez!" Donut states happily, misinterpreting the Spanish speaking robot.

"(I'm going to use you as a meat shield.)"

"Okay then, does everyone understand the plan then?" Washington asked one last time.

"Got it." They said in sync. Over the past two years their teamwork had somewhat improved, but **somewhat **being the operative word here. Caboose held up a hand, having been the only one to not answer the former Freelancer. Washington glanced at Caboose and sighed softly. "Yes Caboose?"

"Hey Agent Washington, your plan sounds really cool and complicated and all and that's great. It's just that I… don't know what we're actually going here for. What is our mission again?" Caboose asked dumbly, receiving exasperated sighs from his teammates.

"Seriously dude? We've been talking about it for the past two weeks! We're gonna go save mah lady Shepard!" Tucker explained quickly, receiving quick glance from Caboose.

"Oh I knew that! I was just making sure everyone else did… Wouldn't want to go in unprepared is all." Caboose quickly lied, trying to cover up his previous naivety.

"Well then, if we're all on the same page then get ready. We're about to arrive." Washington declared, turning to the window to get a view of the space station as they closed in.

"Hey Wash, back to my previous question, but why isn't anyone from the old team here?" Simmons asked, turning back to the former freelancer. "I mean, I get that Garrus is off on his little lone wolf thing in the Terminus Systems, Tali's still on her Pilgrimage and Wrex is on Tuchanka, but what about Ashley or Liara for that matter?"

"Ashley has always been… too single minded. I'm not sure we could bring her along without having to worry about her shooting the Commander on sight." Washington explained hesitantly.

"What makes you think she'd do something like that? I mean I know Ash has always been an uptight bitch, but that's a bit of a stretch don't you think?" Grif asked curiously.

"I fear that to Ash, she wouldn't see her old commander, but some clone of the person we all knew. Or a mind controlled puppet, which I fear is worse. Those are all possibilities, and I'm afraid she'd shoot and ask questions later. I got that feeling on Virmire when Wrex almost lost it." Washington admitted, looking away thoughtfully.

"She was pretty gung-ho. Bow chicka bow wow. Yeah, that one was good!" Tucker cheered to himself, fist pumping lightly.

"Alright, so I see why you ruled Ash out. What about Liara?" Simmons questioned again, but this time Washington seemed more hesitant. He turned his attention back out the window, watching as they approached the Cerberus station.

"That's because I don't-," He started, but was soon interrupted as the shuttle jerked quickly, sending most of the crew tumbling. "Lopez, what's going on?!"

"(Space station has detected us! They're currently launching several counter measures!)" Lopez announced quickly, despite knowing that it would most likely go unheard.

"Oh my gosh! Lopez said they detected us! Now they're attacking!" Donut announced in a panic, trying to get back into his seat.

"(Why is it you can only understand me a **tenth **of the time, asshole?)"

"I'm scared too Lopez!"

"(Dear god…)"

"Shit, I should've seen this coming! Our stealth systems just weren't good enough. Alright Sarge," Washington spoke, turning to the Red leader, "Looks like we're going to have to do the Blood Gulch maneuver. Everyone get ready to board!"

"Oorah! Today's a good day to die!" Sarge cheered after preparing his shotgun.

"Wait, what about your first plan?!" Tucker asked panicked, grabbing hold of his chair to keep from flying. "Are we just gonna wing it?"

"At this point, we're going to have to! Lopez, ram us into their Security station!" Washington ordered, receiving a hesitant 'si' from the robot.

"Yeah, ram into them hard Lopez!" Donut cheered from the side.

"**Shut up Donut**!" The others barked before turning back to the situation at hand.

"Wait, how the hell are we gonna survive that? We'll just get splattered!" Grif argued, cowering in the back of the small ship.

"Don't be a moron, Grif! I armor plated this thing for hitting a cruiser head on!" Sarge dismissed, getting ready as they approached the station with terrible speed. Lopez was doing a good job of dodging oncoming fire, and was headed straight for their target destination.

"This is gonna really suuuuuuck!" Tucker screamed out as Lopez accelerated faster, and made impact with the space station.

* * *

><p>It seemed like any other day for Miranda Lawson. She had gone down to see the progress Shepard was making, and was pleased to see that she was just about ready to wake up. Still though, to be sure she was at maximum capacity, the Cerberus agent would make Shepard was as repaired as needed. She still had several scars that needed to be repaired, but it was a relatively small fix compared to everything they had done for her so far. Today seemed to be a good day for Miranda. That was until…<p>

"Miranda, you copy? It's Jacob!" The Cerberus agent's comm. rang in her ear. Jacob sounded fairly panicked and quick, signifying something bad in Miranda's mind.

"I hear you Jacob, go ahead." She answered, holding the ear piece to listen.

"We've got a single boogie headed toward the station! We thought we could just shoot it down, but it's on a flight path to ram into us!" Jacob explained, watching the feeds from a security terminal. "They're going to fly right into the security deck!"

"Shit, who the hell knows about where we are?" Miranda cursed, walking out of her office and grabbing her weapons. "Alright Jacob, lock down the area. Get the security mech's ready for a fight! I'm going to head down to Shepard to make sure she's safe."

"Copy that, I'm on my way to activate them- holy shit!" Jacob screamed, and soon after the entire station shook from a huge impact. Miranda staggered slightly and the alarms started to blare to life.

"Oh shit… Jacob, status!" Miranda ordered, hoping her friend was safe. She heard the Cerberus soldier coughing from the other side.

"I'm fine, just… knocked the wind out of me. But from the looks of it, they've crashed through somehow. If they're alive, we should be careful. I'm guessing these are some crazy bastards we're dealing with."

* * *

><p>"That wasn't so bad." Washington stated calmly, jumping out of their shuttle. Despite putting a huge hole in the wall, the security systems activated an emergency barrier to keep the gravity and life support systems on in the area.<p>

"**Wasn't **so bad? We nearly died asshole! How was that even a good plan?!" Grif complained, crawling out of the shuttle before falling to the ground with a thud.

"Put a sock in it, numb nuts. It's already bad enough to see that you survived." Sarge grunted as he jumped out after Washington.

"Ow my head… I think I'm gonna hurl…" Simmons groaned out as he tried to steady himself. He went behind their downed ship and taking off his helmet.

"That ride was **amazing**! Are we going to do that again?" Caboose asked as he nearly skipped out behind them.

"Alright everyone, gather up!" Washington ordered. He waited a moment as the group was semi-gathered around him, all still shaken by the impact. "Alright, we don't have much time before we meet resistance. Simmons: Get on that console and see what you can do about the security mechs."

"Alright, I'll just be a moment." Simmons answered as he rushed over to the security systems.

"Obviously we don't have the option of coming in the way we came, so we're going to need to secure a ride out of here." Washington explained as he brought up a small hologram of the station. "Sarge: I want you to take Donut, Caboose and Lopez to their docking station located on the west wing."

"No problem, we'll have it cleared out by the time the rest of you are done." Sarge declared confidently as he led his team through the door opposite to them.

"Make sure to save whoever we were supposed to be saving!" Caboose stated loudly.

"Yeah, we're gonna slip right into their docking zone! They won't know what hit them!" Donut added as he filed behind Sarge.

"(I'm going to shoot you when no one's looking.)"

"The rest of us are going to find Shepard. If someone moves her before we do, Sarge and the others will be blocking the way for us anyways." the former Freelancer explained, preparing his Vindicator as he took cover against the wall next to the door.

"Time to find my babe. And finally get to pork again. Bow chika bow wow." Tucker stated half seriously, pulling out his sword.

"Hey dude, make sure that you wait until **after **we get off the enemy base before you two do anything weird and **not **in front of us, okay?" Grif stated with slight disgust.

"Simmons, what's the status on the mechs?" Washington asked as he picked up several signatures on his radar.

"Almost got it aaaand…." Simmons muttered before stopping. "Uh oh."

"'Uh oh'? What happened?" Washington asked quickly, turning his attention to the maroon armored soldier.

"Well instead of making them see us as friendly I accidently kind of… made them see everyone as hostile." Simmons explained awkwardly. The other three soldiers stared at him as they heard several screams down the hall and gunfire going off. "My bad."

"What happened to being the 'smart one', Simmons?" Grif asked shaking his head.

"It was an odd algorithm, okay! I misunderstood and now it's too late to stop them!" Simmons whined slightly, tilting his head in shame.

"Actually that could work to our advantage. It'll keep the Cerberus operatives busy while we're here." Washington declared thoughtfully, turning back to the door and turning on his comm.. "Sarge, the mechs are set to attack everyone including Cerberus. Take advantage of it but be careful."

"Got it, shoot everyone it is then!" Sarge answered as a shotgun blast was heard.

"Oh good, I've always been good at that!" Caboose added over the radio, the sound of his assault rifle and Donut yelping being heard.

"Alright you three, it's now or never. Let's get to it." Washington told them as he rounded the corner and blasted a mechs head clean off.

"Why can't we ever choose 'never' then?" Grif sighed as he followed the others out. The four moved through the halls with a quickness, but staying alert. Several security mechs met them as they entered a new wing of the facility. Washington didn't bother to give orders to kill or to take cover. He knew that his team could handle a couple of mechs. He'd grown quite proud of their development over the past two years as soldiers. While to others it may not seem like such a big change, Washington knew it was a great improvement.

"Yeah, suck it blue- I mean uh… terrorist guys!" Simmons shouted as he downed several mechs with his Avenger rifle. "Nice save Simmons." Grif drawled as he tossed a frag grenade, blowing away another two mechs.

"Swish!" Tucker narrated as he slashed a mech apart with his plasma sword. The former Freelancer had seen the most improvement in Tucker as a soldier. Despite still sticking to his corny pick up lines and quick witted jokes, Shepard had inspired Tucker to be better than he ever was. It may not have changed his personality much, but it certainly took a toll on Tuckers overall skills. He was a fully fledged Infiltrator now. Something he loved to use in jokes.

It didn't take long for them to mow through the remaining security mechs. There were more than several human casualties lying on the ground that they had not killed.

"Damn these guys got **fucked **up." Tucker whistled as they passed motionless corpses on the ground.

"I feel kind of dirty getting them all killed like that…" Simmons muttered as he felt a pang of guilt wash over him.

"Ah fuck it dude, they're all terrorists anyways." Grif shrugged as he stepped over a body.

"Yeah… Good point, fuck it." Simmons agreed as he stepped on a body's stomach before following them out.

"Come on, we're almost to the medical bay. Expect more resistance." Washington stated trying to get their attention. The three simulation soldiers quickly caught up to Wash, Tucker with a higher sense of urgency. The four went down several flights of stairs before finally arriving at their destination.

"Alright guys, her room should be just about…" Wash announced before Tucker dashed past him into the open office.

"Baby I'm here to save you for once!" he declared as he sliced apart the door with his sword. Tucker charged inside and stood there, trying to make an epic entrance. His little move was unnecessary though as the room was empty.

"Nice going there Batman, you really got the room shaking." Grif quipped as he walked inside the room as well. "Hey Wash, there's nothing in here, just a couple dead mechs."

"What?" Wash asked in disbelief. He moved around to the other medical offices, but found nothing left. "Damn it, they must have moved her as soon as we arrived!" He growled irritably, turning on his radio. "Sarge, do you copy?"

"I copy, this is Sarge. Haven' a good ol' shoot out by the shuttles. What do you need?" Sarge explained, the sound of gunfire going off in the background.

"Watch out for any Cerberus personnel up there. We're in the medical bay but Shepards not here. Keep an eye out." Wash declared as he got his rifle ready to fight again.

"Roger that. I'll try to keep Caboose from shooting Shepard if she happens to be walking' around. But so far we've only run into those robots."

"Understood, just be cautious. We don't want to lose her again. Over and out." Washington ordered as he turned off his comm.. "Alright guys, let's head up to the docking zone to meet the others."

"What about Shepard?" Tucker asked fearfully.

"If someone is moving her, then they'll be headed that way. Sarge can stop them from there, and we can take them by surprise." Washington explained as he took no time to stop and ran through the next door.

"So glad Donut's not with us." Simmons sighed as the four marched out after Wash. Outside there was a asmall makeshift barricade made out of tables and chairs. Several bodies and mechs lay dead on the ground.

"Wow, this is probably the shittiest barricade I've ever seen. What were they trying to keep out, rats?" Grif commented as the four vaulted over a blocking table.

"Looks like they were trying to protect the room." Simmons added as he looked at how it was set up.

"Obviously they did a poor job of it, hah!" Grif laughed, earning sideways glances from Tucker and Simmons. "What, too soon to make fun of them?"

"I don't think there's ever a soon enough for that joke, even if they were enemies." Simmons scolded as they moved up the stairs to the next door.

"Cut the chatter you two, we need to keep up the pace." Washington ordered, taking no time to bother looking back at them.

"Geez so serious. Sometimes I think you forget that's how we operate Wash. So sad." Grif sighed with a shake of the head.

"Will you guys just shut up and hurry?" Washington groaned out in annoyance. Instead of retorting like usual, the simulation troopers decided to drop the subject and move forward. While the others were more than excited to see Shepard alive, Tucker was especially anxious. She seemed within reach only moments ago, but now she almost felt far away from him. He was putting a lot of faith in the hope that she was alive. He didn't know what he would do if it all ended up being a lie.

As they entered they noticed they were now on a higher platform, and there was a small service elevator on the side for them to take.

"It looks like someone's been through here. Quite a few dead mechs and scorch marks by the door." Washington observed as he looked across the room. The four filed onto the elevator and were surprised to have it lift them down so quickly.

"Wow, an elevator that doesn't move slower than dirt. It looks like technology is finally catching up." Grif joked as they walked off the platform.

"Remember all those awkward conversations we'd always have on the ones in the Citadel?" Simmons asked with a small shutter. "Sometimes I wondered how we even got along with the crew."

"Simmons, most of the conversations I have with you are awkward. Although to be honest I did hate those damn things. It was almost like a loading screen in a video game!" Grif complained.

"And it wouldn't even be us who got in arguments; it was the rest of the crew!" Tucker added as he remembered Tali and Garrus barking at each other about their species own politics.

"But unlike you three, they actually argue about things that matter." Washington said rolling his eyes behind his visor.

"Hey we argue about… huh, never mind. I guess I have to give you that one." Grif admitted as he thought about most of their usual chatter. It was never anything of significance. Simmons and Tucker couldn't argue that point either, for the most part all they **did **was arguing about pointless crap.

"Come on, let's get moving. Sprint through the fire so it won't hurt your shields." Washington advised before doing so himself. It was a quick dash and left him relatively unharmed as he passed through. Tucker and Simmons followed suit while Grif stood there for a moment.

"Why sprint through it? We're wearing state of the art armor that's supposed to protect us through any environment. Watch me just walk through it." Grif scoffed as he attempted to take a slow stride and go through the fire. Immediately his shields flared up and he started to feel the heat. "What the **fuck?!**" he yelped before running out of the fire.

"You did realize that it was shooting out like a torch right? The fires heat and speed is far higher when-

"Yeah, okay Simmons, I get it! It's really fucking hot!" Grif groaned as he took a few deep breaths.

"That's what happens when you try to be lazy in the middle of a mission, fat ass." Simmons scoffed as the rest of the team paid him no mind and moved forward. They came to a small bridge with several planters on the side. Across from the bridge was a small observation deck with several dead mechs shot to pieces.

"From what I can see, we're hot on someone's trail. Let's catch up. Hopefully whoever this is has Shepard." Washington stated as he jogged to the next door, leading them into the server tunnels. The four continued to find a path of destroyed mechs, moving without pause as they tried to catch whoever had Shepard.

"Wash, you copy? I'm getting sounds of a firefight near the hangars. Is that you?" Sarge asked through the radio, making the former Freelancer stop.

"No, that's not us Sarge. That could be whoever might have Shepard. Let's get moving!" Washington ordered as he started sprinting down the service tunnel. The three simulation troopers didn't hesitate as they followed quickly behind him.

"Do you want us to engage then?"

"Stay by the shuttles! We'll handle it from here."

"Roger that. By the way we caught one of these Cerberus people. She's wearing some kinda weird-"

"Never mind that now, we'll talk once we catch up!" Wash dismissed, cutting him off. "Alright then, I'll leave it to you to decide what to do with her." Sarge relented with a grunt.

"If all goes as planned, you can let Shepard decide." Washington stated before taking cover against the wall around the last door. "Whoever's out there is the person who's got Shepard. We have to be careful and quick so we don't harm her. Understood?"

"Yeah yeah, we get it Wash. Now let's go already!" Tucker urged, pulling his sword out and getting ready to cloak. Washington sighed but decided to let it go. He knew how much Tucker was anticipating this, and couldn't blame him. Before opening the door though, the former Freelancer picked up two forms on his radar. He raised his hand to halt the three, giving them a sideways glance.

"Two behind the door, be ready to breach." Washington ordered, making the three take up their weapons in preparation. The black and yellow armored soldier took a single breath before pressing the door control and opening it. But after the door slid open, the four immediately stopped in their tracks and their guns slackened in their hands. An all too familiar face stared at four in shock, her own gun failing to rise all the way up.

"Shepard?!"

**TBC…**

**Well I hope you all enjoyed that chapter! I did my best to keep all the reds and blues the way they usually are! It's not that hard I believe, they have amazing yet simple character traits lol. Please if you think I did something wrong with someone here, let me know! I know that in most cases, I can't stand OOCness either. Other than that, thanks for reading! Please leave a review and favorite for me!**

**Before I go though, two things I want to clarify: First is that Shepards appearance will be set. I'll put the link to the picture on my bio page if you're really curious so look for that. Second is that during their time here, most of the Reds and Blues will have upgrades to their armor that will be similar to the classes you get in Mass Effect 3. I won't go into full detail yet, but as the story goes on I'm sure you'll figure out who has what :P **


	3. All the old Faces

**I was planning to take a bit more time in writing this chapter so I could focus more of my attention on some of my other stories instead but… WOW! The season finale for Red vs Blue was amazing! I'm glad that they have gotten away from all the freelancer stuff and are focusing on an all new storyline! So since I'm in the mood, I think I'll be getting this chapter on the road! Please leave a review and favorite for me, it means a lot!**

All the old Faces

Miranda Lawson had rarely ever had a day go this bad for her. Everything seemed fine when she woke up early that day, preparing for the final stages of Shepards restoration. But it all went wrong so quickly without warning. First the station gets invaded, and then all the security mechs turn on her and her people. She figured that it was caused by those who boarded the station, but upon further investigation she was able to find the truth behind the matter. Wilson, a doctor helping with Shepards healing, was really a mole. He tried to sabotage the station and make sure that Shepard was never leaving alive. Miranda was unable to meet up with the former Commander, and so she did what she could to make it to the shuttle bay and cut Wilson off should he try to escape.

At least that **was **the plan. That was until she ran into Sarge and his group.

"Hey little missy, get movin'." Sarge ordered as he and Caboose headed out of the shuttle bay. "It's gotten pretty quiet out there, so we're gonna check it out. Lopez, stay with the ship! Donut, make sure she comes nice and quiet."

"You got it boss! Now start marching, bitch!" Donut demanded as he nudged Miranda forward with his pistol.

"I can't believe I got caught by you morons…" Miranda muttered, doing as Donut said. She had heard the reputation of the Reds and Blues from another universe. They were labeled lucky morons by most, only having one redeeming soldier in Agent Washington. Much to her chagrin, Miranda wasn't even caught by their best soldier, only a couple of their moderate idiots.

_Twenty Minutes earlier…_

_Miranda blasted her way through several mechs on her way to the shuttle bay. She somehow got past a few inactive mechs without alerting them, just calling it dumb luck. Before entering the shuttle bay, she stopped in the hall and took cover. From the other side, she could hear a firefight going on. She prepared her submachine gun, hoping she could get a drop on any enemies around. She quickly activated the door, both sliding open for her as she peeked out. Several mechs were left standing while others lay on the ground. From her position, she could see the red leader Sarge standing on top of one of the shuttles, blasting at the mechs with his shotgun._

"_I'm havin' the time of my life! This is why we go places with Wash. He knows where all the action is." Sarge laughed as he tossed a frag grenade at the last remaining mechs and disposed of them._

"_Looks like you killed them all, Sarge!" Caboose cheered as he came out of his cover for a moment._

"_Of course I did Caboose. We reds know how to kill people that aren't on our team!" Sarge chuckled as he put his shotgun down. As the group started conversing with each other, Miranda considered her options. She was outgunned and outnumbered. But with her skills, surely she could take a couple of morons before Wilson or Shepard appeared, right?_

"_(Hello beautiful. Hands up.)" The Spanish words of Lopez rang through her ears, followed by the sound of a gun being cocked._

"_Damn it all…" Miranda muttered as she held her hands up above her head. Before Lopez saw it coming though, the Cerberus agent ducked down and lashed out with her heel, kicking off his head. The robot fell with a loud clank and grunted in agitation._

"_(Seriously? This time it's by a girl? Well at least she's hot.)" Lopez sighed as he kept his body still. Miranda narrowed her eyes curiously at the Spanish speaking robot, confused slightly before turning back to the other three soldiers. All of which were pointing their guns straight at her._

"_Put your hands where we can see 'em little missy. I'd hate to break my code of honor shooting you for movin' ever so slightly." Sarge warned as he kept his Eviscerator primed and ready._

"_Don't worry Sarge! I can blow her away if you want." Donut volunteered eagerly, caring very little about the fact that she was a woman._

"_For now we'll just take her prisoner. Wash can decide what to do with her." Sarge declared turning away from Miranda and touching his helmet. "Caboose, Donut, keep an eye on her. If she tries anything, you're welcome to help her Caboose."_

"_Yay! I get to help the pretty lady!" Caboose cheered as he aligned his rifle right with her head. Miranda took caution, realizing that 'helping' might have also meant shooting her._

* * *

><p>Washington and Shepard both stood still in a shocked silence. No one moved a single inch aside for the bald doctor Wilson and Cerberus soldier Jacob. The two looked back and forth in question, trying to figure out what was going on here. Shepard lowered her gun to her side and glanced around at the four.<p>

"Guys? Wash? Tucker?" She asked quietly, placing her gun on her hip. Tucker said nothing as he suddenly walked up to her, dropping his gun to the ground. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, squeezing her into a gentle hug, despite the body armor. Shepard spared no shock at being embraced so quickly, but a faint smile spread across her face. She wrapped her arms around him as well, leaning her face into the armored soldier's neck.

"Is this real? Or am I dreaming this up again?" Tucker asked in a whisper, holding her tighter as if to see if she was real.

"This is real Tucker. I'm right here." Shepard answered back, showing no sign of breaking the hug. Sniffling could be heard from Simmons in the back, who was attempting to wipe some tears despite his helmet.

"I love it when we get all emotional like this…" He choked quietly, earning sideway glances from Washington and Grif.

"Jesus dude, get a hold of yourself." Grif sighed with a shake of his head.

"Um… hello?" Jacob asked in confusion. And like that the moment was over as Washington, Grif and Simmons raised their guns at Wilson and Jacob. Tucker grabbed his side arm and pointed it straight at Jacobs head, although keeping one arm wrapped around Shepard.

"Is this guy trying to kidnap you, baby? I'll handle this." Tucker asked cautiously, ready to put a hole in the Cerberus soldiers head. "No one takes my ladies body but me! Bow chika bow wow!"

"While your enthusiasm is kind of hot, there's no need." Shepard chuckled, pushing his arm down gently. "Jacob here was helping me escape the station along with doctor Wilson." She explained, gesturing to both respectively.

"Shepard, I know these people brought you back to life, but they're Cerberus." Washington warned, keeping his gun ready to blow away either man. "We can't trust them."

"I know Wash, that's something Mister Taylor decided to share with me to assure I could trust him." Shepard revealed, separating from Tucker for the moment. "And while I think that Jacob doesn't seem like a bad man, I'll say this again: I'll never work for Cerberus. But they brought me back for a reason, and I want to know why."

Washington was quiet for a moment, a tense silence falling upon the group. Finally the former freelancer lowered his gun and sighed. "I can't argue that you don't sound exactly like I remember Shepard. It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back, Wash. Even if it doesn't feel like I've been gone for so long." Shepard smiled as she turned back to Wilson and Jacob. "You're going to take us to meet this Illusive Man, understood?"

"No problem. Not that I'm in a position to argue." Jacob said giving an awkward glance over to the freelancer. Before anyone made a move though, Sarge, Caboose and Donut burst into the doorway. "Aha! Caught ya' you Cerberus dirt bags!" the red leader shouted as he raised his shotgun. He immediately lowered his weapon as his eyes fell upon Shepard.

"Commander! Well I'll be a blue faced split mouth alien hybrid! You're walkin' around and we haven't even saved you yet!"

"Shepard, O.M.G! You're really back! This is so amazing, I could just cry!" Donut declared with a slight sniffle.

"Hey Sarge, Donut and-" Shepard chuckled before Caboose ran up to the Commander and took her into a bear hug.

"**Oh my god! **You are finally back! I have missed you so much Shepard!" Caboose cried happily, sparing no strength in his hug. Shepard groaned in pain slightly but shrugged it off with a laugh, patting Caboose on the head. "Yes Caboose, I am. I've missed you too."

"Whoa dude, calm down on how much you're hugging my lady. She's gotta have energy left for me later." Tucker stated irritably.

"Now we can finally be together! You left before you could tell Tucker that you and I were in love!" Caboose stated firmly, looking at Shepard through his visor into her eyes. Shepard bit back a laugh as Tucker paused in the utmost shock.

"**What?!" **

"I couldn't break Tuckers heart while you were gone, he was really sad. I had to put my feelings aside and be there for him."

"No seriously, what the **fuck **are you talking about Caboose?!"

"But since you are back, you can tell him. It's best if it comes from you Shepard. Let him down easy."

"What the hell is happening right now?"

"That's what I'm asking myself…" Jacob muttered as he looked around at the other simulation troopers to see if they were serious. Shepard couldn't hold back her laughter as Caboose released her from the bear hug.

"Please tell me I'm not being dumped for **Caboose**!" Tucker demanded fearfully, feeling that out of anything, that was **far **worse than getting dumped in general.

"Don't worry Tucker, you're not." Shepard declared as she finally calmed her laughing. "It's nice to see you guys haven't changed a bit. Come on, I think we've stood idle here for too long."

"Really? And here I was starting to enjoy this place." Sarge chuckled. "All the robots you can shoot. Lopez almost wanted to join them earlier."

"Your friends like to talk a lot." Wilson groaned in annoyance, fearing the fact that they had been in one place for so long. "Let's get out of here!"

"Actually, you're not going anywhere Wilson." The feminine voice of Miranda Lawson sounded from behind Donut, grabbing the pistol from her hip and quickly shooting the doctor in cold blood. His body flew back against the wall, going limp. In an instantaneous reaction, the reds and blues raised their guns at Miranda in alarm.

"Drop. Your. Gun." Washington ordered sternly, earning a sideways glance from the Cerberus agent. She narrowed her eyes indignantly before finally letting her Carnifex fall to the ground.

"Donut, you were supposed to keep a close eye on her! You let her shoot that guy before I could!" Sarge scolded, looking back at the pink armored soldier.

"I'm so sorry Sarge… I was just filled with so much emotion at seeing Shepard… Who wants me to fill them up with my emotions? I could really use the relief…" Donut cried softly, most likely tears streaming from his eyes. Several of the Blood Gulch crew scooted away from the pink armored soldier.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Jacob asked in shock, looking down at Wilson's limp body.

"Wilson betrayed us, Jacob. He would have killed us had he gotten the chance." Miranda declared calmly, her eyes falling on Agent Washington. "He activated the mechs and made them turn on us. He used these morons as an excuse for the mechs going hostile."

"Oh that makes sense. That's why I couldn't stop them from seeing everyone as hostile. They were already hacked before I got to them." Simmons spoke thoughtfully, looking up in thanks as he felt the responsibility for some of these deaths lift from his shoulders.

"You must be Miranda Lawson." Washington spoke, taking several steps toward the Cerberus agent. "I've heard your name several times in the past during my encounters with Cerberus. You're one of their top agents."

"Agent Washington I presume. I've heard the stories of the infamous Reds and Blues. You're the only one with any actual skill among morons." Miranda complimented while insulting the rest of the group.

"Funny you say that, missy. You just so happened to be caught by us morons, didn't you?" Sarge taunted as he rested his shotgun on his shoulder. The Cerberus agent glared back at the red armored soldier.

"Alright enough bickering guys, it's time to move. I've had enough of this station for a lifetime." Shepard ordered, grabbing the group's attention.

"Or two lives in your case. I can get us to a back up station so you can talk with the Illusive Man." Miranda suggested, ignoring the fact that Washington was still pointing his gun at her. Shepard sighed before pushing Wash's gun down, giving him a sideway glance.

"We're going with them Wash. It doesn't mean I trust them. For now we're playing this by ear." Shepard ordered assertively, leaving no room for question. Washington glanced at his Commander for a moment before looking at Miranda distrustfully. The two glared at each other for a long moment before Wash conceded to Shepards orders.

"Got it boss. Sarge, were you four able to secure us a ride out of here?" Washington asked, turning to the Red leader.

"Yep we kept the place real clean for us to get out. We're gonna have to take two of them though, they're small passenger ships." Sarge stated as a matter of fact.

"We'll split the groups up then. Miranda, you're coming with me and Blue team. The rest of you will go in the second ship. Jacob, you can bring the other ship on our tail." Shepard ordered, patting each one of the Blood Gulch crew on the shoulder as she passed them.

"You got it, shouldn't take long for us to get there." Jacob said with a nod. With a nod in agreement, Shepard led the group back to the shuttle bay. Washington kept a close eye on Miranda from the side, feeling that she was their top threat at the moment. While Shepard seemed like her usual self, that didn't mean that Cerberus had not set up a failsafe in case she turned on them. Next to him, Grif whispered quietly to get his attention. "Hey did you guys notice?"

"Notice what?"

"This Cerberus chick is really hot. If that outfit is standard issue for women in Cerberus, I think I don't mind working with them." Grif pointed out, making the former Freelancer sigh in annoyance.

"Oh come on dude, you have to admit that. She's steaming hot!" Tucker added from the side, hoping that Shepard wasn't listening.

"Didn't you just reunite with the love of your life?" Washington asked in slight disbelief.

"Well yeah of course, and I'm happy as hell! That doesn't mean I can't look." Tucker joked suggestively, looking Miranda up and down.

"You know if Shepard heard you say that, she'd toss you out of an airlock right?"

"I'd toss anything her way, bow chika bow wow." Tucker said under his breath.

"You know I can hear you three, right?" Shepard announced with a low tone. She glared back at Tucker from the corner of her eye. "And we're going to talk about that **later**."

"Oh shit…" Tucker muttered as he knew what was most likely coming later.

"Someone just got busted." Grif taunted from behind the aqua armored soldier.

"You know who else got busted? Your si-" Tucker began to retort before Wash clasped his shoulder quickly.

"I think you've dug yourself in a hole enough as it is…" Wash whispered before walking ahead of the two. Tucker glanced at Shepard again who kept her back turned to him, making him sigh in defeat. "I guess it was a bit too early to make jokes…"

"You think?" Shepard shot back without looking at Tucker. She currently had a smirk on her face, having no real anger at her boyfriend. She was just happy to see that he was his usual self from what could be seen at least. With that, the two groups finally departed from the Cerberus station. It was hard for Shepard to accept that she had been there for two years. But it was reassuring to see most of her old crew try to come to her 'rescue'.

* * *

><p>After such a long time of talking on the base, the group finally departed and headed for another Cerberus operating station. This wasn't anywhere near what Miranda had in mind when she was going to wake Shepard, but she would have to make due with what she had.<p>

"Commander, before we meet with the Illusive man, I want to ask you some questions so I have a full idea of your current condition." Miranda explained, sitting up straight in her seat.

"Do you really have to? She knows who we are and actually likes us. That's a proof enough for me." Tucker objected, his hand intertwined with Shepards, which she more than welcomed.

"Actually I think that's a good idea. I want to make sure everything checks out as well." Washington declared from his spot next to the window. Before Miranda could agree though, his gaze fell upon her. "Which is why I'll be asking the questions, understood?"

Miranda glowered at the former freelancer for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Fine, be my guest then Agent Washington."

"Why thank you Miss Lawson." Wash answered with a roll of his eyes. "Alright Shepard, let's start with something basic-

"Hey dude, hold on! I should ask some questions too then, she **is **my lady!" Tucker pointed out, making the SPECTRE shake her head good naturedly. Washington sighed and turned to the aqua armored soldier in regard.

"Fine then, go ahead I suppose."

"Alright then! How was I the first time we-

"But **no **questions regarding how your sex life was, or anything similar in nature." Washington quickly stopped him. The last thing he wanted in his mind was mental images of the horrible things Shepard and Tucker had done together. Miranda crinkled her nose in disgust, unable to believe that the soldier was able to speak of such a thing so freely, and in front of someone they just met.

Tucker stared at him for a moment before sighing. "Well I guess I've got nothing, go ahead and ask away Wash."

"Oh, I have a question! What's two plus two?" Caboose quickly asked.

"This isn't a math quiz Caboose." Washington answered calmly, quite used to his stupidity now. In fact, he was most likely the only one able to talk to Caboose in such a way without totally exploding save for Shepard.

"How do you know if you haven't asked her the question yet?" Caboose asked like he knew what he was saying.

"Can we get on with this already?!" Miranda blurted out in annoyance. Shepard raised a brow and smirked knowingly.

"Is that also one of the questions?" Caboose again.

"Let's focus shall we?" Washington said, turning back to Shepard. "When did you first meet the Reds and Blues?"

"November tenth, twenty one eighty. You guys were thrown on Captain Anderson because he was the only one willing to take you in until you were able to find a way home. He regretted that decision for a while, but he warmed up to you guys." Shepard answered easily, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Good memory. Looks like we don't have to ask too many of these." Wash chuckled, remembering their first day meeting the commander as well. But he quickly turned serious again, thinking of one instance she should know of. "Let's go forward a bit. Back on Virmire, we were forced to destroy the Krogan breeding facility that Saren was trying to use to build an army. We were forced to leave someone behind. Do you remember who?"

Shepards smile faltered at the question, memories of the loss running through not only her head, but the head of her team.

"Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, our biotic specialist on the Normandy. He gave his life that day to ensure the bomb would destroy the facility. He died a hero." Shepard answered stiffly, trying to keep a more professional look. But she wasn't fooling the Blue team who knew her all too well. But none persisted on the subject.

"Alright then, it looks like you check out Boss. Are you satisfied now?" Washington asked, turning to Miranda. The Cerberus agent nodded firmly, showing no real feelings over the subject.

"She seems to be in proper order. Hopefully this little field test is enough for the Illusive Man. Is that enough for you and your team to accept we made no modifications to her?" Miranda shot back, crossing her arms.

"If you're expecting an apology for what we did, you're setting yourself up for disappointment." Wash retorted easily, turning back to Shepard. "You had no right hijacking her body. "As I've said before, I've encountered Cerberus several times. None of them left me with a very good taste in my mouth."

"Sounds like you've been busy, Wash. Once we've settled down, I'd like to have a chat with you about the past two years." Shepard declared thoughtfully. If anyone knew about what the rest of the crew was up to, she knew it would be Washington.

"Understood. I'll be sure to fill you in."

"Hey, the only one fillin' my baby in is- **ow**!" Tucker complained as the Commander elbowed him hard in the side.

"I think that's enough unprofessionalism in front of Miss Lawson, Lavernius." Shepard stated, shooting him a glare.

"Okay, shutting up." Tucker said without hesitation. He knew not to piss his girlfriend off.

"It's far too late for that." Miranda remarks with disgust. "How can you even be called a soldier?"

"Hey lady, its part of what makes our group awesome. You'll see once you start working with us." Tucker answered with a shrug.

"Or you'll hate us. Either way works." Caboose adds simply.

"Also true."

"I expect it to be the latter of the two." Miranda mutters in annoyance. Much to her relief, the Cerberus agent spotted the station they were set to arrive at. "Looks like we're here."

* * *

><p>The two groups stepped out of the shuttles quickly, Washington and Shepard keeping a wary eye out for trouble. Miranda walked next to Jacob, needing a relief from the insanity of the Blues.<p>

"These people are insufferable. How was your ride here?" Miranda asked with an ounce of dread in her voice.

"Hey Jacob! Remember to let me know about my color scheme idea for Cerberus! You guys could do with a brighter shade of yellow!" Donut informed the Cerberus soldier, not far behind the two. Out of courtesy Jacob gave a nod and forced smile before turning back to Miranda.

"You don't want to know. I've never met such an… odd group of people before."

"Well if things work out the way the Illusive man wants, then I'll talk to Shepard about her 'team'. They don't exactly seem like the type of people we will need on this mission."Miranda whispered to Jacob before heading to a terminal. Jacob nodded and took a place at the window of the base.

"The Illusive man will speak to you now Shepard. Just go through the door down the stairs." Miranda announced to the SPECTRE. Shepard nodded and turned back to the Reds and Blues.

"Alright guys, wait here for a bit. I'm going to have a little chat with this Illusive man. You know the rules: no touching anything and no breaking anything. Got it?"

"Wow, two years and you still remember those rules. We're not children, Shepard. I think we can handle ourselves." Grif stated indignantly. Shepard raised a brow, unconvinced.

"Alright then Grif, I'll leave it up to your teammates to decide. Guys, in the past two years did Grif become any smarter or more mature for that matter?"

"Nope."

"Not at all."

"I think he's even lazier."

"Majority rules, Grif. Stick to the rules or Sarge gets to make some orange juice for breakfast." Shepard shrugs before patting him on the shoulder.

"I'll keep it pulp free." Sarge states casually, cracking his knuckles.

"Uh okay, I think I'll keep my hands to myself then." Grif answers cautiously, scooting away from the Red leader.

"Be back in a few." Shepard nods before walking away from the group. They watch as she leaves, collectively sighing once she's gone.

"It's still hard to believe she's back. It happened so quickly!" Simmons admits, turning to the rest of the team.

"To be honest, you'd think we'd be used to something like this. We've had a lot of friends we thought were dead end up alive." Sarge pointed out.

"Yeah but she wasn't just 'thought to be dead', She was **dead **dead, and for two years!" Tucker exclaimed, feeling like this was all still a dream come true.

"Let's just take it for what it is and be happy that Shepard's back." Wash declared, settling the discussion.

"So why do you think they brought Shepard back for, anyways?" Simmons asked curiously, turning his attention to Wash.

"I'm pretty sure it's just because she's a badass." Grif shrugged casually.

"I think we all know the answer to that." Washington remarked, waiting for one of them to figure it out. The Reds and Blues glanced at each other thoughtfully, no real answer coming out as they muttered to each other. Wash's shoulders slumped in disbelief. "Seriously, you guys don't know why?"

"Of course I do, Blue! But just to make sure that everyone is on the same page, why don't you explain it for us?" Sarge answered stiffly, trying to play off his naivety.

"Yeah, just so that Simmons here doesn't feel stupid." Grif added, also trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about.

"I also know exactly what is going on and the answer to his question." Caboose of course.

"Dear god… it's because of the Reapers!" Washington finally answered, shaking his head. The group collectively answered with "Oh!"

"Oh yeah dude I totally knew that." Tucker scoffed.

"Wait, I thought we killed the Reaper thing two years ago?" Grif asked in confusion.

"That was **one **Reaper. He was trying to bring hundreds more. From what I can tell, they're still trying to finally get to this Galaxy. That's why they killed Shepard in the first place. They view her as a threat." Washington explained, making the others turn in confusion.

"Wait, you think that it was the Reapers who attacked us? They were totally different than anything we've seen though!" Tucker exclaimed in disbelief.

"Not only do I think they attacked our ship, but I also believe they've been attacking human colonies." The former Freelancer explained.

"Wait, attacking human colonies? When did that happen?" Grif asked, dumbfounded. Wash stared at him in disbelief before glancing around at the rest of the group, only Simmons showing any sort of knowledge of the situation.

"Haven't you been paying attention to anything? That's been all over the news for the past months!" Simmons pointed out, sharing Wash's confusion.

"And I even took you guys with me when I investigated one of the colonies! We were there for a whole week!" Washington pointed out impatiently.

"Wait, that was why we were there? I thought it was us taking a small vacation from looking for a way home." Grif shrugged, showing no real care.

"So you're telling me that the entire time we were there, you didn't notice all the empty homes and leftover goods from previous families or me inspecting every inch of the colony?" Washington asked incredulously.

"Hey dude, I don't pay close enough attention to what anyone here does. Don't act so surprised." Grif again shrugged off uncaring. Washington sighed in frustration, deciding to let it go.

"I don't even know why I try sometimes…" He muttered, walking past the group. Washington's patience level with the Reds and Blues was considerably high compared to many, but they could still push him over the edge of irritation despite this.

Before the group could disperse and check out the new space station, the doors to the room Shepard entered opened up, stopping them in their tracks. Shepard walked out with a more focused expression, looking up at her team with the utmost seriousness.

"So what's going on Commander? Are we ditching this place or what?" Sarge asked curiously, but Shepard merely shook her head.

"I'm going to need you guys to hang tight here for a bit. There's something I have to do first." Shepard declared, stepping up the stairs and past the Blood Gulch crew.

"Seriously? You're back for five seconds and you're already going on a mission?" Grif asked tiredly. One mission was enough for him in one day.

"If it didn't need my immediate attention Grif I wouldn't be going. But I have to." Shepard said, glancing back at her team. "You've all had a busy day, so take a rest here for the time being. I'll take Miranda and Jacob to check out this lead." Wash was going to inquire upon what the lead was, but Tucker beat him to the punch.

"That's bullshit. I'm not letting you run off again after just getting back. I'm going with you." Tucker exclaimed firmly. Shepard smiled softly at her lover and nodded.

"He's right. We can't have you going with a few Cerberus agents alone. I'll come along as well." Washington volunteered, stepping up next to Tucker.

"I don't mind seeing a bit more action, let's go." Sarge offered, cocking his shot gun. Almost as if a sudden burst of inspiration hit them all, most of the crew was ready to step up and follow her lead, only to be stopped by Shepard.

"That's alright boys, I think Tucker and Wash are enough for what I'm about to do. Just stay here for the time being, we'll be back." Shepard ordered, receiving a sigh of relief from Grif.

"Well then call if you need us, we'll be waitin' here." Sarge nodded, turning to the rest of the team. "Come on fellas, we should find something to grub on."

"Now that's an order I can follow." Grif quickly jumped on, following the Red leader out of the room.

"I hope they have some wine here, it's nearly time for my wine and cheese hour!" Donut cheered giddily.

"Take care Shepard! Remember to talk to Tucker about that thing I mentioned earlier. Hopefully he'll be okay." Caboose whisper-yelled, doing horribly at concealing the conversation.

"Shut the fuck up and go Caboose." Tucker groaned in annoyance while Shepard merely chuckled and pat Caboose on the head.

"So where are we headed now, boss?" Washington asked as Shepard led the two toward the shuttle bays.

"We're going to follow a lead that the Illusive Man gave us. Someone's been abducting human colonies and I think we know who." She declared, sharing glances with Wash and Tucker.

"Oh yeah we all totally know who." Tucker said clearing his throat while Wash rolled his eyes.

"So we're heading to a colony that was just recently hit." Shepard continued, turning back toward the shuttle bay. "We're heading to Freedoms Progress."

**TBC…**

**Whoa! Man that took a lot longer to finish than I expected. I kept going back and deleting entire sections because I felt too forced in writing some parts. Thankfully now I think it came out the way I wanted it to. So as usual I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, show me some love by reviewing and favoriting for me! See you guys next chapter!**


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